Steel merchandise shelves commonly found in supermarkets and the like generally provide a generally C-shaped price channel along the front edge. Where such shelves are formed without a channel, plastic fittings can be added to the shelves to provide such channels. Price channels have upper and lower flange members along their edges and can be used to accommodate snap-in labels or label or sign holders adapted to receive and display non-adhesive paper or plastic labels or signs containing magnetic inventory bar coding or printed pricing or other such information for the consumer. Alternatively, adhesive-backed labels can be affixed directly to the front surface of the C-channel. While adhesive-backed labels may be secured to surfaces of varying dimensions, they are difficult to remove or replace when different merchandise is to be displayed on the shelf, and generally leave behind an unsightly adhesive residue. The cost of such labels is not only higher because of the adhesive, the labor costs associated with removing and replacing such labels significantly increases the overall expense of such systems.
Non-adhesive labels are less expensive to manufacture; additionally, they can generally be installed and removed much more readily. Moreover, the appearance of shelving provided with label holders adapted to removably receive non-adhesive labels is dramatically improved.
Depending upon the type of shelving, the price channel configuration may be different. Although the size of most price channels are fairly standard, no two shelves are exactly alike. Thus, the height of the channel formed between the upper and lower flange members may vary because of manufacturing tolerances, even on different shelves of the same shelf system.
Various attachments are currently on the market for adapting a C-channel to removably receive and display non-adhesive information-containing labels to a consumer. In most versions, one or more rearwardly extending flexible legs are provided with portions designed to snap into the upper and lower flanges of the C-channel. While such attachments may provide only upper and lower channels to receive and retain a paper or plastic label, much like the C-channel on the shelf, they commonly include a main body or backing panel and a hingedly attached transparent cover which together define a pocket between them for reception of the non-adhesive label. In some circumstances, a transparent label cover can be snapped directly onto a C-channel over the lower edge, providing a pocket for a non-adhesive label between the cover and the C-channel itself.
While each of the foregoing systems are useful, they each have limited application and one or more disadvantages. For example, while the label holders with rearwardly extending legs can accommodate C-channels of somewhat varying dimensions, they still must fit between and engage both the upper and lower flange elements limiting their versatility.
The snap-on covers rely heavily on their ability to mount on and pivot about the lower edge of a price channel placing great stress on the connection, particularly if the design of the shelf is somewhat unusual or if the lower edge of the channel is bent. Moreover, since the covers must be transparent in order for the information on the label to be viewed therethrough, any unsightly portion of the C-channel not hidden by a label is visible to passersby.